“I’m entitled” or its second cousin “I deserve” are myths that need to be shattered in order to move forward.

Let me make two bold and unpopular statements: We are entitled to nothing. We deserve even less.

“I deserve a raise.” “I’m entitled to respect.” Those are phrases from the powerfully weak. They connote some form of “If ‘A’, then ‘B.’”

“If I work hard and keep my nose clean, then I deserve a raise.” And when the raise doesn’t come, we blame the person in charge of the purse strings.

We rarely examine our mindset of entitled.

If we come from the attitude that we deserve nothing, we will discover that what we want has to be openly requested, not just a silent prayer at the altar of the God of Entitlement.

Waiting for someone to give you what you deserve is like waiting for your ship to come in at a babbling brook.

The person in sales who makes an awesome pitch and doesn’t ask for the sale is locked into the dream of deserve. Because you’ve done such a stellar presentation isn’t enough.

The request is the missing piece, not only in sales, but also in life.

We must ask for what we want. Deserve will never get us there.

Deserve is the fear of asking. And we often don’t ask because we are afraid of what the answer will be. So we retreat into the dream world of deserve and make it someone else’s fault that we don’t get what we want.

Asking is a 50-50 proposition. It’s either going to be yes or no. Even if it’s maybe, it will eventually turn into yes or no. Deserve has much longer odds as in “I deserve to win the lottery.”

Start making requests of people in every area of your life. You’ll increase the odds of getting what you want and leave the disappointment of deserve in the dust.